Tesla is to have a big Gigafactory announcement sometime this week. I put all I could find about it, plus some location rumors (Nevada!) in a post on AutoblogGreen.

So far, the only thread for the Gigafactory is one in Investor Discussions related, of course, to the investment opportunities, so I thought I'd start this one in the main Tesla Motors part of the forum. It's likely that this will need a section all to itself in the near future, though.

Ivanpah is now likely running full bore, but it is on the other side of the border from Neveda. Just right across the border, but certainly in the middle of nowhere. I believe all the output of Ivanpah is already dedicated to California utilities. So they probably wouldn't be able to tap into that solar power even if they did build a plant say closer to Las Vegas where people would presumably then be able to commute to the plant from.

If Elon had known a few years back that things would have worked out so well, he might have been able to plan ahead and get dibs on a few MW of power from the plant. After all, Google is part owner...

Nevada does indeed have a number of things going for it - proximity to Fremont; excellent insolation; cheap land; in many parts appropriate infrastructure (highways and rail).

That said, one feature of NV that is worrisome to me is its potential for a disruptive economic climate. That is, changing corporate taxes.
Nevada is demographically odd in that its population base is skewed more toward two minuscule locations, Las Vegas and the Reno/Carson City strip, than any state other than Alaska. Its economy has three legs: gambling, extractive and service. Gambling and service are ineluctably tied in to the two pop'n centers; the miners, although traditionally enjoying excellent support from the state government, more and more have been looked at with lust by state government: (1) they don't vote (so to speak); (2) they're rich (so to speak); (3) they're far from the pop'n centers.

That sort of harvesting of the goose who lays the golden eggs has been the downfall of many, many socioeconomic entities in the past, for decade after century after millennium. It could be very easy for a manufacturing site (our factory) - really large even for economies like California's or Texas's, absolutely gigagynormous for economies like Nevada's - to, after a time, become irresistibly delicious for the revenue grabbers.

So, anticipatory response for Tesla: Engage a tax break as a quid pro quo for setting up in Nevada? The problem with such - although as all know something that is very widely done - is two-fold. First, by their very nature such a discriminatory practice elicits an understandable and almost un-answerable resentment by those who do not enjoy such a benefit: citizens and other corporations alike; and second, as a wise political observer once wrote, the problem with buying politicians is that they just don't stay bought.

I would counsel Tesla not consider Nevada without very, very carefully taking into account all of the above.

Ivanpah is now likely running full bore, but it is on the other side of the border from Neveda. Just right across the border, but certainly in the middle of nowhere. I believe all the output of Ivanpah is already dedicated to California utilities. So they probably wouldn't be able to tap into that solar power even if they did build a plant say closer to Las Vegas where people would presumably then be able to commute to the plant from.

If Elon had known a few years back that things would have worked out so well, he might have been able to plan ahead and get dibs on a few MW of power from the plant. After all, Google is part owner...

RT

Click to expand...

I would expect the Gigafactory to have its own dedicated solar array. I think Elon knows where to get a good deal on panels. :wink:

This is Japanese article. It sounds like "Tesla and Panasonic are in the final stages of negotiation for Gigafactory deal" but it's subscription only so I can't read it in full. Sometimes Nikkei reports rumors but this time it seems the news was on the top page of Nikkei newspaper (yes, paper) so they might have a good source.

This is Japanese article. It sounds like "Tesla and Panasonic are in the final stages of negotiation for Gigafactory deal" but it's subscription only so I can't read it in full. Sometimes Nikkei reports rumors but this time it seems the news was on the top page of Nikkei newspaper (yes, paper) so they might have a good source.

This may be a clue to the gigafactory announcement: Musk and SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive are scheduled to speak on innovation before state regulators on Feb. 27, according to an e-mail statement today from the California Public Utilities Commission.

This may be a clue to the gigafactory announcement: Musk and SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive are scheduled to speak on innovation before state regulators on Feb. 27, according to an e-mail statement today from the California Public Utilities Commission.

They are meeting with California regulators. I've always said the gigafactory will happen in California. This meeting might be to put the thumb screws to CA to get them to give the Teslasonic gigafactory a sweetheart deal. That's why you go to other states first to get their deals on the table for the hard negotiation.

Another Japanese article regarding the Panasonic partnership with Tesla (I have tasked my mom with scouring Japanese news sites for me - so far not too much). Pretty much what has been posted before. Also, no location for the factory was mentioned.

Synopsis:
100 Billion Yen investment to help build the world's largest lithium-ion battery factory. Aims to be up and running by 2017; may also supply Toyota as well as other industries (mentions household storage). "Panasonic is aiming for 2 trillion yen in sales of about 2 times the current in 2018. Automotive batteries is the main, and aims to increase sales in the joint production of the Tesla".

Info from the Annual report regarding the gigafactory:
"While we have not identified a final site for this facility, we currently expect that it will be located in one of the following states: Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico or Texas. We currently expect the facility to be built on a lot between 500 and 1,000 acres in size, with up to approximately 10 million square feet of production space with one or two levels. At full implementation, the Tesla Gigafactory is expected to have 6,500 dedicated Tesla and production partner employees. We currently plan to commence supplying battery packs manufactured at the Tesla Gigafactory for our vehicles, including the Gen III vehicle, and stationary storage applications, in approximately three years. The Tesla Gigafactory is currently expected to attain full production capacity in 2020, which is anticipated to be sufficient for the production of approximately 500,000 vehicles annually and stationary storage applications."

"We believe that the Tesla Gigafactory will allow us to achieve a major reduction in the cost of our battery packs of greater than 30% on a per kWh basis by the end of the first year of volume production of Gen III. The total capital expenditures associated with the Tesla Gigafactory through 2020 are expected to be $4-5 billion, of which approximately $2 billion is expected to come from Tesla."